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The Donald And DACA

The Donald plans to end his immediate predecessor’s (HIP) Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy in six months. It is estimated to affect about 800,000 illegal aliens. The action by HIP was widely recognized as unconstitutional so The Donald’s wisdom in this action seems obvious. The crazy reaction it has led to is amazing. Here was one on my Facebook feed:

Trump needs to be deported–not these aspiring young people. What a CREEP he is!!! And certainly delusional too–as Andy Borowitz so aptly summarizes in this article. (God help this country with this wacky, cruel, traitor for a president.)

We see there is no evidence that these folks are aspiring. We see no evidence that they will add to anything other than Democratic vote totals. We checked out Andy at the New Yorker. It says it is satire from the Borowitz Report and here is a sample:

“Under this new decision, if you have worked hard, gone to school, and contributed to the country, you face immediate deportation,” one legal expert said. “On the other hand, if you can prove that you have a glaring personality disorder and a flimsy grasp on reality, you can decide the fate of those other people.” [Quotes in original]

It is possible that Andy is making fun of the legal expert but it doesn’t seem like it. There are six months for Congress to act as only Congress should. If they don’t act it is unlikely that any large percentage of these illegal aliens will be deported.

[The Donald] was at his worst during the campaign when he assailed DACA as an “unconstitutional executive amnesty,” though to his credit he later evinced a change of heart toward these immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Why was this The Donald at his worst? It is not quite clear but a couple of paragraphs later they admit:

But as a legal matter, they are right that Mr. Obama’s DACA diktat presents legal problems. The Constitution gives Congress the power to write immigration law, and issuing work permits confers a right that is the purview of the legislative branch.

So the WSJ agrees that The Donald and most everyone else is right that HIP’s action was unconstitutional. The Donald give Congress time to act. We hope they find some common ground to improve immigration policy and that the executive branch enforces that law. The Congress needs to find a way to compromise. It would help the Congress develop some backbone if folks responded more reasonably to events.